Chile Sauce Recipes

In Vietnamese, "tương muối ớt lá chanh" would literally translate to "sauce salt chile lime leaves". It's a spicy sauce I came up with by using the kaffir lime leaves from our garden. They're so fragrant and very useful in Asian cuisine. I usually use them for making broth, but this time, I blended them with fresh green chiles, coarse sea salt, garlic, limes and a little sugar to balance the flavor of the sauce. I used it as a spicy dipping sauce for crab that I simply steamed.

It's crab season so I stocked up on a lot of crabs that I cracked and stored in sealable bags for making crab cakes and soups in the future.

If you have the space to plant a kaffir lime tree and you're into Asian cooking, go for it; it's a good investment. Plus the plant doesn't take too much space and it's almost maintenance-free.

Everyone who likes spicy food and has tasted this sauce says it would sell very quickly. If you've followed our family's culinary adventures, you may know how much Daddy (my father-in-law) loves anything spicy. My husband Lulu planted Habanero chiles in planters last summer and Daddy made several jars so we could enjoy the chiles all the way through the winter. Daddy came up with a very easy but flavorful recipe for chile garlic sauce. Simply combine the same proportion of fresh garlic and Habanero chiles and complete with white vinegar, a touch of salt and sugar.

You can enjoy it as a condiment on the side like Daddy does, or I've also added half a teaspoon of the spicy mixture in sauces, dressings and marinades. It adds a pleasant, spicy zing to just about any dish.